It’s time to join the sales evolution because how people buy and sell has changed forever. Today, sales professionals need to harness the abundance of social media and technology to enhance their sales process, so we’ve created a list of the best Social Selling Books you need to read right now.
What is Social Selling? | Social Selling Definition
Social Selling is the practice of incorporating social networks into your sales process, from prospecting to positioning to presenting. Social selling doesn’t replace sales fundamentals; instead, it evolves them.
Today, social media allows sales professionals to engage with future customers directly without even picking up the phone. No more buying lists. No more cold calls. No more gatekeepers.
Also read:
- 19 Of The Best Sales Podcasts To Listen To Right Now!
- Learn To Sell Like A Pro: 19 Best FREE Online Sales Training Videos
- How To Use Clubhouse To Grow Your Business
What Are The Benefits Of Social Selling?
Frankly, there’s never been a better time to be in sales. In this era of social media, social selling is the evolution of sales. Buyers are constantly connected and on social media, learning more about your company and competitors. Social media has changed the buying process and, as a result, the selling process.
Let’s look at the Performance Benefits of Social Selling by comparing Users of Social Selling with All Others. These numbers are from a whitepaper published by Hootsuite sourced by Aberdeen Group.
- Total team attainment of sales quota 64% versus 49%
- Customer renewal rate 55% versus 48%
- Sales forecast accuracy of 54% versus 42%
- Percent of sales reps achieving quota 46% versus 38%
15 Best Social Selling Books | Prepare To Join The Evolution of Sales
1. Social Selling | 10 Essential Strategies To Prospect, Position & Present Using Social Media
Published May 11th 2015
Pages 94
Author
Tom Abbott, Managing Director & Founder of SOCO/ Sales Training.
Reason To Read
Tom wrote this book because, as a fellow sales professional and business owner, it’s exactly the book he needed when starting out with social media about 10 years ago. He wrote this book for you!
“In my work with sales professionals and business owners, I’ve noticed some best practices for social selling. 64% of sales teams use social selling to reach sales quotas (and 15% more contract renewals) versus 49% who do not adopt it. By incorporating these three areas (Prospecting, Positioning and Presenting) and ten essential strategies, you can experience the benefits too.”
PROSPECT
Use social media to find your audience, have conversations with prospects, generate sales leads and get past gatekeepers to fill your sales pipeline.
POSITION
Use social media to demonstrate your expertise, differentiate from competitors and assess prospects’ needs to help you stand apart from other solution providers.
PRESENT
Use social media to deliver sales presentations, ask for the sale, and get spin-off business, which means you’ll reach sales quotas more often and get more contract renewals.
– Identify which platforms provide the most effective means to reach prospects.
– Increase your following on social media.
– Successfully generate inquiries and leads.
– Use social media without alienating or spamming your audience.
– Effectively measure closing rates.
Billions of dollars of Businesses is being done on social media. It will only grow. If you want a slice of this explosive social media business revenue, this book is a must read.
Sam Elahee (amazon review)
There are hundreds of Social Media channels. It is hard to know, which one is most suitable and profitable channel for you. Tom made his mistakes in choosing the right social media for his business growth. Here he guides us not to make similar mistakes and holds our hand in choosing what social media could be the most helpful for our own business.
Your business must choose the best social media channel and when you have master the channel, your business will generate customers from social selling.
The 10 strategies in the book are very concise, to the point and easy to implement, if you want to sell in social media. Consistency and being helpful to your social audience will sure bring you success in your social selling.
2. Social Selling Mastery: Scaling Up Your Sales and Marketing Machine for the Digital Buyer
Author
Jamie Shanks, Managing Partner at Sales For Life – The Growth System
Reason To Read
Jamie Shank teaches that Social Selling is not social media marketing. It’s a completely different approach, one that, above all, is more one-to-one rather than one-to-all. Therefore, you’ll learn how investing in personal relationships builds revenue and how to achieve this by developing nurturing relationships with your potential customers.
Jamie Shanks is the CEO of Sales for Life, who has helped companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Xerox, Sprint, and Oracle. So this book will teach you everything you should know to expand your sales.
Published September 6, 2016
Pages 224
“Today, there is no business as usual. Mastering social selling is your competitive advantage, as buyers expect salespeople to deliver value and relevance in every interaction. Success requires leadership and an aligned strategy between sales, marketing, and operations. Jamie Shanks prompts you to answer key questions in your journey to achieving Social Selling Mastery.”
BARBARA GIAMANCO, Co-Author of The New Handshake: Sales Meets Social Media
3. Social Selling: Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers
Authors
Tim Hughes is a social selling innovator and pioneer and has been mentioned by Forbes as one of the Top 100 Social Sellers globally. Matt Reynolds is a technology sociologist, blogger, and social selling technology entrepreneur. He’s written over a dozen books, including The Death of the PC and Social Selling, published by Kogan Page.
Reason To Read
Social Selling: Techniques to influence buyers and changemakers provides a practical, step-by-step blueprint for harnessing these specific and proven techniques, including:
-How to use networks purposefully to build social trust and create a high-quality community
-How to develop real influence and authority in your subject area and connect with change-makers
-How to scale the social selling strategy across an organization, including maturity and investment models, risk and governance, and technology platforms.
Published 3 Feb. 2020
Pages 208
“Hits on every single ideology that leaders at all levels need to hear and understand in order to keep their sales and marketing teams relevant in the digital age. The terminology used in this book is more than just the future of business. It is the now of business and should serve as a wake-up call before it’s too late.”
Jack Kosakowski, Global Head of B2B Social Sales Strategy, Creation Agency
4. The Art of Social Selling: Finding and Engaging Customers on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Other Social Networks
Author
Shannon Belew is a digital marketing advocate and top-selling author of Starting an Online Business for Dummies, All-in-One. She currently manages a global IP telephony company’s online marketing and lead-generation efforts. Her blog, OnlineMarketingToGo.com, focuses on topics including social media, social selling, mobile strategies, and content development.
Reason To Read
The Art of Social Selling provides a detailed methodology for growing sales and expanding your customer base via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and other social media platforms. An excellent toolbox for learning how to execute realistic sales strategies for each of the major social media platforms, identify social media trends that may influence future buying behaviors, and how to sell online in B2B and B2C environments.
Published January 14, 2014
Pages 272
5. Social Upheaval: How to Win @ Social Selling
Author
John Golden is Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer at Pipeliner CRM
Reason To Read
Social Upheaval: How to Win At Social Selling explains how every B2B salesperson can add social selling methods to their toolkits and why it is so important to do so without delay. A short, easy-to-read book that delivers practical advice and tactics to leverage sales evolution successfully.
Published 1 Jan. 2014
Pages 136
6. SOCIAL SELLING & MARKETING – LinkedIn MAGIC 5 FORMULA: A Step by Step Method for Generating Business Connections and High-Value Sales Leads
Author
Denis Zekic is an award-winning online specialist with years of experience in both the B2C and B2B sales and marketing sectors.
Reason To Read
The book approaches Social Selling as an essential strategy for businesses, leaders, entrepreneurs, and other professionals who are trying to build their industry thought leadership and, at the same time, inform and provide products or services to their target markets.
Published 15 July 2018
Pages 168
7. Social Media Selling Secrets: The Essential Book to fill your social media channels, websites and funnels with dream customers.
Author
Ngalinda Innocent Ngalinda, Managing Director of Successful Business Ltd.
Reason To Read
Social Media Selling Secrets shares and explains Ngalinda’s three key selling strategies that form his proven one-page marketing plan. These include his competition Strategy, low-cost leads strategy and
webinar strategy.
Published 16 Dec. 2020
Pages 168
8. A Simple Guide to Social Selling Mastery: A Step-By-Step Guide For Sales Engineers To Master The Digital Sales Process, Connect With Customers, Generate Leads, And Make Profitable Sales
Author
Philipp Schmid
Reason To Read
In this book, you will learn how to build a network of clients that will serve you well irrespective of what your goals are, your strategy for social selling success and how to craft one as well as a content strategy that works and a system of selling that does better than paid-advertising and why. Therefore, this system will help you save money or channel it better for more results.
Published 15 Jan. 2021
Pages 70
9. How To REALLY Use LinkedIn: Implementing Social Selling & Social Recruiting Projects At Scale
Author
Bert Verdonck (Author), Michael (Mike) Clark (Author), Caleb Storkey (Author)
Reason To Read
In this book, you will learn how to inspire your sales team with socially credible strategies to help them succeed. As well as how to effectively position yourself as the employer of choice to a social generation. Amongst other benefits is allowing your recruiting team to find, win and hold the best talent, thereby driving down hiring delays and turnover costs.
Published 1 Mar. 2019
Pages 300
10. LinkedIn Unlocked: Unlock the Mystery of LinkedIn to Drive More Sales Through Social Selling
Author
Melonie Dodaro is a Canadian social media expert, author and entrepreneur.
Reason To Read
This book outlines how to gain leads and clients from LinkedIn, even if you’ve never found success through this platform. It includes Melonie’s tried-and-true process, The LINK Method™ – a proven 5-step system for connecting with prospects, getting them to know, like and trust you, and transitioning to offline conversations where you can turn them into clients.
Published 21 April 2018
Pages 236
Want to generate leads with the help of social media?
Join our Social Selling Mastery training, and you’ll get access to our complete Social Selling Course and our BONUS LinkedIn Outbound mini course. Inside, you’ll learn how to use social media to position yourself as the ideal solution provider for your prospects and gain access to proven LinkedIn scripts that will help you book more meetings with prospects. Â
